Google commits to removing Russian news outlets from news search

Following criticism of Russia's online activities designed to influence Americans and now other nations, Eric Schmidt has gone on record to say that Google will no longer classify certain Russian sites as news. Specifically, Schmidt mentions that Sputnik and RT are the two major offenders.

Sputnik and RT are both owned directly by the Russian government, but are not likely to be blocked from search entirely. "We don't want to ban the sites. That's not how we operate," Schmidt declared and went on to clarify that he is strongly against censorship of the internet. Both Russian sites are also supported by Google Adsense, so it seems that the relationship with Google is good enough to allow revenue sharing to continue.

Even though Schmidt did directly call out two different Russian sites for the "spread of misinformation," he did not offer any definitive actions that would be taken. There is still little information from Google on how it has changed policies after discovering that Russian ads were appearing on a number of its platforms, besides minor changes to YouTube.

RT was removed from YouTube's premium ad service around the time that Congress began investigating possible ties to Russia. Currently, RT still has over 2 million subscribers on YouTube and is just as free to post content as any other users.

How Google decides to combat potentially fraudulent news in search remains to be seen. No matter the decision made, the size and scope of Google News will greatly impact what content is easily accessible by the general public.

Sensorship! Looks classy on the outside, but shady on the inside. Just like these corporate talking heads, media outlets and politicians.... Fancy-Dressed Demons (Ugly inside, fake and plastic suit-wearers on the outside).

Sensorship! Looks classy on the outside, but shady on the inside. Just like these corporate talking heads, media outlets and politicians.... Fancy-Dressed Demons (Ugly inside, fake and plastic suit-wearers on the outside).

HOGWASH!

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Go home Ivan. Find some other site to troll for Putin.

If an American company wants to de-prioritize a site that regularly posts anti-American propaganda, they are welcome to do so. Its called the free market - I know, foreign concept to a Russian - and either their consumers will react negatively and go to Yahoo or Bing (hilarious thoughts), or they'll collectively shrug their shoulders if they even notice RT and Sputnik are no longer the top results on the search results.

Sensorship! Looks classy on the outside, but shady on the inside. Just like these corporate talking heads, media outlets and politicians.... Fancy-Dressed Demons (Ugly inside, fake and plastic suit-wearers on the outside).

HOGWASH!

Click to expand...

Go home Ivan. Find some other site to troll for Putin.

If an American company wants to de-prioritize a site that regularly posts anti-American propaganda, they are welcome to do so. Its called the free market - I know, foreign concept to a Russian - and either their consumers will react negatively and go to Yahoo or Bing (hilarious thoughts), or they'll collectively shrug their shoulders if they even notice RT and Sputnik are no longer the top results on the search results.